AROUND 500 people attended the Warragul and District Lapidary Club’s Jewellery, Craft and Gem Show in Yarragon over the weekend, which took advantage of the town’s tourist stopover status to promote its displays.

Club secretary Ruth McDonald told The Warragul Citizen tourist traffic made up for a lower Saturday attendance for the annual two-day event.

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“Today’s been really busy for a Sunday,” Ms McDonald said.

Pictured above: (from left) Warragul and District Lapidary Club president Karen Lindorff, Peter Mostert with showcase and club secretary Ruth McDonald.

“Usually Sunday’s the quieter day, but today’s been really good and I think might be the result of the hot weather earlier in the week.

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“Yesterday people didn’t go out, they were getting over the hot week.

“I think overall it’s probably as good as any year we’ve had.”

Pictured above: Shaylee tries panning with mum Leeanne.

Attendance figures for the weekend are yet to be tallied, but Ms McDonald said she thought the numbers were “close to 500, maybe more,” with over 350 walking in on the Sunday.

Although there was plenty of local advertising, pulling people from Yarragon’s shopping district to the Yarragon Public Hall for the show on the day was more effective.

“We’ve had kids going down the street handing out flyers saying ‘gem show on today’ because Yarragon’s a good tourist town and with all the people going through in January, a lot of them come in,” Ms McDonald said.

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Pictured above: Della Warren with a Brazilian agate slab.

“I think that’s where most people come from, they stop down the street for a cup of coffee and if they see flyers or someone hands them one and says there’s a show just around the corner, I think that’s where most of the people come from.”

The club aimed to appeal to as many people as possible when putting together the show, which features stalls from around the country.

“Some people are interested in rocks and other people are interested in jewellery, so we try to have something for everyone,” Ms McDonald said.

Pictured above: view from the stage of the main hall.

Club president Karen Lindorff said anyone was welcome to join the club.

“Just come to the club rooms!” Ms Lindorff said.

“We do everything to do with rocks stones, we do fossicking, beading.”